Nearly €300 million a year in tolls should be collected annually from motorists to fund motorway construction, the National Roads Authority and the National Development Finance Agency have told the Government, writes Mark Hennessy, Political Correspondent.
Under the plan, submitted to the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, before Christmas, tolls would be established on existing and new roads, including a second toll on the M50 around Dublin and one on the Lee Tunnel in Cork.
In an interview with The Irish Times, Mr Brennan said he was opposed to introducing too many tolls on Irish roads, but favoured one on the Cork-Dublin road at Fermoy, Co Cork, and another farther north, possibly near Newbridge, to ensure that Waterford- and Limerick-bound traffic paid.
The toll document was drafted by a joint NRA/NDFA team that worked "around the clock" for months, Mr Brennan said.
"They are talking about very sensitive places like the Lee Tunnel. The other four or five places are equally sensitive. If they had their way they would put a second one on the M50, wouldn't they? They would be tackling the Naas Road, anywhere you can think of," said the Minister, who said he was still studying the joint submission.
Mr Brennan has already expressed his opposition to the plan, although it is not yet clear if the Department of Finance or other members of the Cabinet will be more supportive of it.
He said: "I can't have someone driving from Dublin to Cork city paying four or five tolls. You are going to get huge resistance. People will go on the old roads, and your revenue will decline."
Tolls can be imposed on existing roads under a change made recently by the Minister. "It means that you don't necessarily have to put the toll on the particular stretch of road that you have just built," he said.
Meanwhile, Mr Brennan has confirmed that he told the National Roads Authority last month to complete motorways from Dublin to Cork, Galway and Belfast by the end of 2007.
Following lengthy negotiations the National Pension Reserve Fund, which now commands €10 billion of taxpayers' savings, has finally shown interest in investing in road construction, he said.
In return for funding the €500 million cost of widening the M50 and getting rid of its existing roundabouts, the pension fund is being coaxed with an offer of control of tolls from the road between 2015 and 2035. The tolls are currently controlled by National Toll Roads.
At the moment control of funds on the M50 is committed until 2015. "Beyond 2015 up to 2035 we can actually now sell that 20-year slot in advance. They would have to bid for it, obviously, because there will be 10-12 others interested," said Mr Brennan.
The National Development Finance Agency, which is part of the National Treasury Management Agency, was set up by the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, to raise capital to pay for the National Development Plan.
However, hopes that the new agency could raise capital without affecting the Government's key European Union general government balance figure have failed to materialise.
In the last Budget the Government gave Mr Brennan a guarantee that he would have €7 billion of State money to pay for the roads programme over the next five years, along with a further €1 billion of private investment.
The M50 toll concession operated by National Toll Roads generates €40 million annually in revenue, although the company passes on €10 million of this to the Department of Transport. The Dundalk motorway bypass will be funded by the tolls raised from the existing motorway around Drogheda.